‘Wheels for the World’ donates its 10,000th wheelchair in Ghana

Four communities in the Ashanti region of Ghana have benefited free wheelchairs and mobility aids from a UK based Christian organisation ‘Wheels for the world’.

The eight-member crew from the group has been to Atwima Nwabiagya, Sekyere Central, Obuasi and ended its tour in the Ashanti regional capital Kumasi.

Beneficiaries received free medical treatment, brand new and refurbished wheelchairs, special foot wear, mobility aids alongside Bibles written in their own languages.

Leader of the team Jill Jikenson told Ultimate News ‘Wheels for the World’, is driven by a passion to ensure that the disabled in developing countries are given the empowerment they need to integrate into society.

“We are a Christian organisation and our motivation is to demonstrate God’s love in a very practical way. We are aware that many people in developing countries have no possibility of getting a wheelchair and we have discovered particularly in the last couple of days, there are some people who are shut away in their rooms and they have been there for five, ten, fifteen, twenty years. They cannot move around unless someone is available to carry them and they cannot go outside.”

“We feel as a Christian charity, we want people to know that just because you are disabled, doesn’t mean to say that you’re the bottom of the pile, but you are in fact loved by God,” a passionate Jill indicated.

She also told Ultimate News’ Ivan Heathcote – Fumador, ‘Wheels for the World’ had done their ten thousandth wheelchair donation in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, a feat she was positive donors will be excited about.

Jill was more elated ‘Wheels for the World’ had made great impacts in the lives of Ghanaians as the group had received very touching testimonies after donating wheelchairs and mobility aids to the communities.

She recounted an interaction she had with a man who had been beaten by the rain a day before he was given the wheelchair because he had been brought outside and there was no one to send him back inside when the rains began falling.

“When I gave him a wheelchair, I asked him what difference it will make, he said I will never have to stay in the rain again because now he will be able to push himself out of that situation,” Jill narrated.

A beneficiary who spoke to Ultimate News was elated the group had helped her paralyzed son with a special mobility aid.

“When he was forty days old, we realized he had a swollen head and took him to the hospital. He went through surgery but when he grew he couldn’t walk or talk. I had no idea of these mobility aids and wheelchairs that could help my son. I am happy because he has always been on the floor and now he can sit up and wheel himself around,” the young woman said.

The team comprised Medical Doctors, physiotherapists, social workers and mobility aid technicians.

Apart from Ghana where the group has visited for eight times, ‘Wheels for the World’ has been working for the last twenty years in thirteen countries where it has done 56 outreaches and donated over eleven thousand mobility aids and now hit its ten thousandth donation of wheelchairs.

Most of its wheelchairs are refurbished by prisoners serving long sentences in Parkhurst Barracks, a prison situated in Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, operated by Her Majesty’s Prison Service.

Aside this, the group has done countless free medical care, repairs and reconditioning of wheelchairs for beneficiary countries.

The group has also led thousands to Christ through its outreaches, ministering prayers and counselling to beneficiaries and distributing Bibles written in the local languages to everyone they minister to.